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Plot Synopsis

There's a peaceful town without a name, cut off from the rest of the world. The people who reside there are kind, simple folk who work hard and live their lives to the fullest. One would not expect such a simple town to have so many secrets.

The town is surrounded by huge walls and the residents are forbidden to leave. The biggest mystery, however, are the Haibane, human-like beings with angelic features. They are born in giant cocoons and have no memory of where they came from. All they know is they are governed by the Haibane Renmei and have to adhere to several rules in order to coexist with the humans. The newest of the Haibane is Rakka. Like the others she has no memory of her former life and, with the help of Reki and the other Haibane, has to learn to adjust to her new life while learning the secrets behind her existence.

Quick Review

Haibane Renmei is a tough series to peg down, even after seven episodes. That's hardly surprising, since it's from the mind of Yoshitoshi Abe, best known for the Lain series. There's a whimsical, down-to-earth feeling to the show which I liked and the characters are simple and realistic. Toward the end of the second volume, an event happens which greatly effects the cast and I ended up feeling their emotions--not an easy thing to do in any entertainment medium. They only reveal a little story every couple of episodes and I found the concepts they presented pretty interesting.

My only real concern is where the show is going. It's completely up in the air. As nice as the whimsical feeling to the show is (for me, others may find it tedious) they can't keep it up and expect to come to some sort of decent conclusion. Having been burned by anime endings (or non-endings, as the case may be) in the past, I can't help but feel a little nervous about what the latter half of the series will be like. However, my instincts tell me the project won't end up collapsing on itself.

Full Review

Haibane Renmei is a tough series to peg down, even after seven episodes. That's hardly surprising, since it's from the mind of Yoshitoshi Abe, best known for the Lain series. There's a whimsical, down-to-earth feeling to the show which I liked and the characters are simple and realistic. Toward the end of the second volume, an event happens which greatly effects the cast and I ended up feeling their emotions--not an easy thing to do in any entertainment medium. They only reveal a little story every couple of episodes and I found the concepts they presented pretty interesting. I also found the interaction between the Haibane and the humans refreshing. There's some conflict between a couple Haibane groups but on the whole they all get along and the humans in the town accept them with open arms. It's nice to see compassion, acceptance and other decent human traits instead of the negative ones.

My only real concern is where the show is going. It's completely up in the air. As nice as the whimsical feeling to the show is (for me, others may find it tedious) they can't keep it up and expect to come to some sort of decent conclusion. Having been burned by anime endings (or non-endings, as the case may be) in the past, I can't help but feel a little nervous about what the latter half of the series will be like. However, my instincts tell me the project won't end up collapsing on itself.

Regardless of where the story goes, the show is wonderful to look at. While a few scenes go a little overboard with the digital look, causing some of the designs and animation to look flat and artificial, the majority of the art is lush and detailed. The character animation is quite serviceable and the backgrounds look wonderful--particularly since the show is shot in widescreen. Even better than the art is the music, which is orchestral and very nice sounding. It perfectly suits the scenes in question: whimsical, emotional, happy, etc. The lyric-less opening best showcases how wonderful Haibane Renmei's soundtrack is. I can only speak for the English acting, which was also serviceable. I liked the casting, particularly Reki, who I thought hit the role just about right from the start. Carrie Savage grows into the title role Rakka well after a few episodes, as do the rest of the actors. For the first few episodes the acting was kind of flat but the cast was up to the task during the above-mentioned emotional scenes in the second volume.

I'm definitely looking forward to taking the rest of Haibane Renmei's journey. I'm all for experimental stuff, be it in anime, independent films, TV shows or what have you. I've seen enough of them to know some turn out fantastic, but I've also seen enough to know they can be an exercise in frustration. I hope Haibane Renmei is part of the former category. From what I've seen it looks like it will be worth watching.

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Related Recommendations

Other angelic-themed anime may be a good match such as Angelic Sanctuary and X TV, though those are much heavier then this series. If you liked the down to earth nature of the show, Boys Be... or I Can Hear the Sea might be worth checking out.

Notes and Trivia

After the success of Lain and NieA_7, Yoshitoshi Abe decided to do some work for a dojinshi (fan comic) magazine, thus Haibane Renmei was born. Dojinshi works rarely get animated but in this case some friends of Abe liked what they saw and pushed to get it made into a series. Even Pioneer USA kicked in some funding. When the show was ready to be produced, only two episodes were ready, with no real plot in mind. Continuing in the experimental mode, Abe let his thoughts flow in order to create more episodes.

US DVD Review

Pioneer (or Geneon as they're now known) has released yet another solid DVD production. The anamorphic widescreen video looks very nice for the most part, though I noticed some shimmering and pixelation on the first volume. The bilingual audio is crisp and each language comes with its own subtitle track: full dialog and title translations for the Japanese language and just song and title translations for the English language. Extras include Japanese-only episodes previews (they weren't tied in with the episodes in the Japanese release either), textless opening and ending sequences, the original Japanese text version of the opening, art galleries, Japanese TV commercials, a promotional video, a special ending, an interview with the creators, and a script cover gallery. The first volume is available on its own or with a box to house the series. The box version comes with a pencil board and a production booklet.

Parental Guide

Kids may be bored stiff with the slow-moving plot, but so far there's little objectionable content.

Violence: 0 - Harmless conflict between a couple groups of Haibane.

Nudity: 2 - The Haibane aren't born with clothes, but nothing detailed is shown.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - There seems to be a lovers quarrel involved in the above-mentioned conflict.